AstroDad
Contributor
I did my first dive of the season yesterday. Had a nice time with a few old friends, and made a few new ones. Capt. Ty's operation is everything you've already heard - top drawer. In short, a nice guy who is attentive and helpful. I'm certainly going to be a repeat customer.
It was a really beautiful day to be out. Clear blue sky horizon to horizon, slight breeze and calm seas. Much too nice a day to be cooped up in an office.
We started on the Sheridan. I'd guess vis was in the 20-25' range. A few spotted the Goliath - I missed it. The group decided that we'd move to a few reefs/ledges for the remaining two tanks, so we did. On the first reef MissD saw a nice size turtle (I think I overheard loggerhead). I missed that one too. Nice dive though - 65'ish deep and in the 30-35' vis range. The second reef was much like the first (depth & vis), but noticeably more structure. Me and the other two I was with came across a nice nurse shark in the 7' range (photo was taken, but not yet processed). Lots more tropical type fish on this reef too. Quite a few large Angel's and I think I saw a Parrot out of the corner of my eye.
As we were preparing for the third tank, a group of about 6 or 7 dolphins came swimming straight to the back of the boat. MissD was "Johnny-on-the-spot" and had her gear on and in the water faster than I've ever seen any women put anything on (wet or dry). Unfortunately, they veered off about 30' or so from the back of the boat and swam around for a bit on the side of us. They were doing this slow roll, tail slap thing (like a beaver would do). It was very cool. On the way back in to dock, we picked up what looked like the same pack and they followed us in for a short time (~100' off to the side).
Observations:
It was a really beautiful day to be out. Clear blue sky horizon to horizon, slight breeze and calm seas. Much too nice a day to be cooped up in an office.
We started on the Sheridan. I'd guess vis was in the 20-25' range. A few spotted the Goliath - I missed it. The group decided that we'd move to a few reefs/ledges for the remaining two tanks, so we did. On the first reef MissD saw a nice size turtle (I think I overheard loggerhead). I missed that one too. Nice dive though - 65'ish deep and in the 30-35' vis range. The second reef was much like the first (depth & vis), but noticeably more structure. Me and the other two I was with came across a nice nurse shark in the 7' range (photo was taken, but not yet processed). Lots more tropical type fish on this reef too. Quite a few large Angel's and I think I saw a Parrot out of the corner of my eye.As we were preparing for the third tank, a group of about 6 or 7 dolphins came swimming straight to the back of the boat. MissD was "Johnny-on-the-spot" and had her gear on and in the water faster than I've ever seen any women put anything on (wet or dry). Unfortunately, they veered off about 30' or so from the back of the boat and swam around for a bit on the side of us. They were doing this slow roll, tail slap thing (like a beaver would do). It was very cool. On the way back in to dock, we picked up what looked like the same pack and they followed us in for a short time (~100' off to the side).
Observations:
- The water is COLD! Low 70's at the top, high 60's at the bottom. This nancy-boy doesn't like to dive those temps!
- Being the first dive of the season, I felt obligated to buy something. Well, that fancy new (expensive) mouth-piece I bought is at the bottom of the Gulf out by the Sheridan. Right off the back of the boat and I'm breathing water. So THAT's why you bring a spare mouthpiece! I also decided that my 20 year old BC needed replacing. Well, actually, it's in fine shape, but over the past 20 years it has shrunk about three sizes. Odd how that happens. I'm still groping around a bit, but I sure do like all those D-rings!
- Take your tank protectors off if you have them. The holders on Ty's boat aren't that friendly to them.
- I suppose my (life-long) addiction to NASCAR peeked through today. Johnny_bravo's wet suit looked like it was a Dale Jr motif (the B's were mistaken for eights, and it had a fair amount of red in it), while MissD had this big white number three with a red outline on a black background - Dale Sr. of course. I had to double take to notice the "mm" under that "3"...
